Patterson, Carl
Research Notes:You've heard it said that there are two kinds of people in this world, the givers and the takers. Carl Patterson was a giver, so it was the windy afternoon, Feb 25, 1976, when he gave his life in a field on the Shrader farm near Peoria Oklahoma, while fighting a raging fire that Carl Patterson and his crew were not obligated to fight, but Carl was a giver. Carl grew up in Picher where he started to work at an early age to help his invalid father care for his younger brothers and sisters. He joined the CCC as a young man while others his age were enjoying the pleasure of youth. But Carl was a giver. While serving with the CCC, he met, and married Reba Corp, a senior at Broken Arrow Oklahoma High School. The young couple moved to Picher, and at various times Carl worked in the mines, but his heart was always with the Picher Fire Department where he served under Fire Chiefs Charley Safford and Jerry Williams, both deceased. Carl and Reba became the parents of six children, Harland Patterson, U.S. Army, Retired, Tacoma Washington; Wendell Bud Patterson, affiliated with a mortgage company in Tulsa Oklahoma, where he resides; Judy Patterson Keheley secretary to the elementary principal at Dewey Oklahoma; Donna Sue Patterson Reeves, employed at the First State Bank, Picher, and wife, of present fire chief, Bert Reeves; Lawrence Patterson, former Picher-Cardin High School teacher, now an accountant with Boeing Aircraft, Wichita Kansas, and David Patterson, assistant manager of Reasors, Miami, and lives in Picher. It is proper at this time to pay tribute to a man that touched the lives of so many, and asked so little in return.
Book: Hard Rock Lead and Zinc Mining Men — S J Mahurin
ISBN: 1-892744-95-3